What can the Shadow app do? Every feature, explained

Any video, cut into phrases you control

Add a video or audio file, a podcast or a recording of your screen. Shadow transcribes it and cuts it into phrases, one sentence or clause at a time, because a phrase is the right size to copy. A YouTube link works too: you drill it by ear and save the moments you want.

The cuts are yours to change. Drag a divider to make a phrase longer or shorter, join two lines into one, or choose just the part of the transcript you want to repeat. Then set:

• Repeats: how many times each phrase plays before moving on.
• Speed: slow the speaker down while you learn a line, then bring it back to full speed.
• Pause: how long the gap is for you to speak: none, as long as the phrase, or twice as long.

Hands-free drilling

Press play and put the phone away. Shadow plays a phrase, leaves your pause, repeats it the number of times you chose, and moves to the next phrase by itself. You never touch the screen to switch lines.

That turns dead time into practice: a walk, the commute, the washing up, a morning routine. Ten minutes of hands-free repetition a day adds up to more speaking than most learners get in a week.

Practice mode: record yourself after the original

In Practice, you hear the speaker, record your version straight after, and play the two back to back. You cannot judge your own accent from the inside, so hearing yourself next to the original is where most of the progress happens.

Shadow also draws the pitch line of both voices: it rises when a voice goes up and dips when it comes down. Intonation is hard to hear in yourself and easy to see, so you can match the shape of the speaker's sentence, not just the words.

Final shadowing: film yourself beside the speaker

The last step is a video. Shadow records you on camera while the original plays, with a built-in teleprompter so you never lose the line, and puts the two side by side or picture in picture. You see whether your mouth moves the way the speaker's does, and you hear both voices together, so any difference in rhythm stands out.

The video exports at Reels and TikTok size, with optional subtitles. Share it to keep yourself accountable and get friends practising too, or send it to a teacher for feedback on your pronunciation.

Your own text, voiced in a natural accent

Shadowing works best on speech you actually need. Type or paste any text, a presentation opening, a pitch, a phone call, answers for an interview, and Shadow voices it in a natural American or British voice. It can also write the material for you: give it a topic or a phrase and it creates a dialogue, a monologue or a set of examples, then voices it, ready to drill.

Built for job interviews, presentations, meetings and calls

To prepare for a job interview in English, create a dialogue where an interviewer asks the questions you expect and you answer, or add the answers you have already written. Shadow voices them, and you drill each answer hands-free until it comes out without thinking: the words, the stress and the intonation. The same works for the first minute of a presentation, a status update in a meeting, or a sales call.

The coach: ask how a native would say it

Heard a phrase you did not understand, or do not know how to say something in English? Ask the coach in the app. It explains the phrase, gives natural examples, and voices them. Save any voiced line to a collection and drill it later, on a walk, while doing chores or during your morning routine.

What the research says about the method

According to Whitworth, B. & Rose, H. (2025). A Systematic Review of Research on the use of Shadowing for Second Language Pronunciation Teaching. Research Synthesis in Applied Linguistics, 1(2)., a systematic review of 44 studies found that shadowing training can improve learners’ comprehensibility, intelligibility and accentedness, along with suprasegmental control such as fluency and prosody. The same review found the evidence on individual sounds (segmental control) inconclusive.

Frequently asked

Can I change where a phrase starts and ends in Shadow?

Yes. You can drag the dividers to make phrases longer or shorter, join lines, and choose exactly which part of the text you repeat.

Can I practise with Shadow without touching my phone?

Yes. Drilling is hands-free: each phrase repeats the number of times you set, with the pause you set, and the next phrase starts on its own.

Does Shadow show my intonation?

Yes. In Practice mode it draws the pitch line of the speaker and of your recording, so you can compare the melody of the two.

Can I share my shadowing practice?

Yes. Final shadowing records a video of you next to the speaker, sized for Instagram Reels and TikTok, which you can share or send to a teacher.

Is Shadow free?

Shadow is free to download, with a daily practice allowance, a few free transcriptions and three free AI generations. Premium gives unlimited practice and transcriptions, 30 AI generations a month (voiced examples, dialogues and monologues) and videos without the watermark.

Source

Whitworth, B. & Rose, H. (2025). A Systematic Review of Research on the use of Shadowing for Second Language Pronunciation Teaching. Research Synthesis in Applied Linguistics, 1(2). DOI · open-access copy